Regarding the public-information campaign on the dangers of crystal methamphetamine:
Gee, are we telling the truth this time?
We sure didn’t when we warned our kids about marijuana. We - with the help of propaganda such as Reefer Madness - didn’t, and the kids found out we were lying anyway. Should they believe us now?
The bulk of anti-drug information is pure nonsense, including the famous “here is your brain on drugs” campaign. Our lack of absolute honesty has left our kids with little defense against the dark side.
At least some drugs make the user feel good, at least for a little while. So for the first-timers who are ill-prepared for that experience, they instantly know, ‘Well, that was a lie’ and makes many of the curious wonder, ‘What about X or X, is that a lie as well?”
As for marijuana, which, I tried it, even inhaled it, but did not get the promised “high.”
All my tries were in Alaska during the legal time in the late 1970s. It makes little difference; I didn’t like it, a lousy smoke and left me with a yucky feeling the next day. But let me explain: Most do not have that experience. They enjoy it and seem to have little or no complaint later.
But our highly motivated government decided that marijuana was bad for everyone and has gone to great measures to discourage its use. A bad move, despite the fact that with the exception of various medical reasons, I would discourage its use.
Enough on marijuana - let’s move on.
Now we wish to instruct our kids on meth - crystal, never tried it - and we expect them to believe us.
Sorry kids, we really mean it this time, no foolin’, meth is bad! Got it? We aren’t lying this time!

azcentral.com

Although the play-in game was held on Tuesday, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kicks off in earnest on Thursday.
This year, there are more high-tech ways than ever to enter and run pools and to make sure you don’t miss a minute of the action.
Brackets and pools
Pretty much every sports related web site you can think of let’s you enter and run tournament pools. Some of the most popular ones are offered by ESPN.com, Yahoo, and CBS Sportsline.
If you use Facebook, CBS Sports has an application that lets you participate in a pool from inside Facebook. Other companies are also offering bracket applications in Facebook.
Most pools require all entries to be in before the first game tips off on Thursday at 12:20 p.m. eastern time.
If you are running a pool, I would suggest creating a spreadsheet in Google Docs & Spreadsheets to keep track of the standings. Doing this will allow you to update the spreadsheet from any computer with an Internet connection and easily share it with others or publish it to the web.
Following the action at work
Your best bet is to sign up for March Madness on Demand, so you can watch all of the games for free on your computer. For instructions, check out this How 2 item I wrote recently on the service.
Free TV and movie service Joost, is also offering live streaming coverage of every game, though you have to download a program to watch and Joost warns that since it is testing this service, the company expects things to go wrong.
If your employer, blocks access to these services, you can always track the scores at a number of sites, including ESPN, CBS Sportsline and Yahoo Sports. Many cell phone companies, sports sites and other sites are also offering free text message alerts. One site that is offering text message alerts is 4info.net.

blogs.orlandosentinel.com

But for the second consecutive season, the Orange will not be playing in the N.C.A.A. tournament. And this time, there will not be much debate.
Eighth-seeded Villanova throttled the ninth-seeded Orange, 82-63, at Madison Square Garden before most people across the country had finished lunch. One year after Syracuse was snubbed from the N.C.A.A. tournament, its bubble has burst.
“We needed to win a lot of games,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “After last year, we probably needed to win two or three games to even get close to where we were last year.”
Syracuse’s season-long inconsistency manifested itself yet again. The Orange turned the ball over 18 times, settled for too many 3-point shots and played lackadaisical defense, which allowed the Wildcats to make 11 of 21 3-point shots. For stretches, Syracuse players lost track of Villanova guard Scottie Reynolds, who had 22 points and 6 assists, with no turnovers.
The Orange’s uninspired performance left the two locker rooms with drastically different moods. Villanova’s impressive performance, its third victory in a row, pushes the Wildcats (20-11) closer to securing an N.C.A.A. bid. But they will not be able to rest easy on the eve of selection Sunday, even if they can upset top-seeded Georgetown on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

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2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
OK, it’s technically called the "opening round" of the NCAA Tournament, but we all know that Tuesday’s game between Mount St. Mary’s and Coppin State is the play-in game, with the winner to be fodder for No. 1 overall seed North Carolina on Friday in Raleigh, N.C.
Actually, Coppin State (16-20) has made history this season, becoming the first NCAA Tournament team with 20 losses. In fact, the Eagles, champions of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, were 4-19 (losing 17 of 18) at one point this season before finishing 12-1. They will be making their first NCAA Tournament, appearance since 1997, when they made history by upsetting No. 2 South Carolina as a 15 seed.
"A lot of people could have quit in that situation," Coppin coach Fang Mitchell said of his players’ early struggles. "These guys didn’t quit. I was really proud of them for having that fight in them … even though it seemed that the season was over for them.
"Now we’re striving to be the first 20-loss team to win a tournament game now," Mitchell said, although the Eagles are betting underdogs for Tuesday night’s game at WagerWeb.com.

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BracketBrains.com helps college basketball fans identify likely upsets, make better bracket pool picks for 2008 NCAA basketball tournament.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) March 14, 2008 — TeamRankings.com today announced BracketBrains 2008, a web-based service that uses powerful statistical technology to help NCAA basketball fans make smarter 2008 March Madness bracket pool picks. A free demonstration of BracketBrains is available now at http://teamrankings.com/ncbtp/index.php?aff=100000005.
"Conventional wisdom regarding how to make good NCAA bracket picks is often disproved by analyzing historical data," said Mike Greenfield, a Stanford-trained computational scientist and co-founder of TeamRankings.com. "For example, sportscasters from media outlets such as ESPN and CBS Sportsline love to discuss how teams with strong end-of-season momentum are well positioned for success in the NCAA tournament. In fact, 'streaking' tournament teams have generally underperformed expectations when one considers the historical performance of similarly seeded teams."
"Unfortunately," adds Greenfield, "when it comes to making March Madness picks, very few college basketball fans have the technical aptitude, data, or free time to perform a detailed statistical analysis of every possible NCAA tournament bracket game."
To help NCAA basketball fans make more educated bracket choices, TeamRankings.com created BracketBrains. The web site touched a nerve with guessing-weary office pool entrants last year, attracting hundreds of thousands of March Madness fans in the days after the 2007 NCAA tournament bracket was announced by the NCAA Selection Committee.

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